An enterprise doing business of manufacturing a device/unit needs various kinds of components of firmware (programs) in addition to a design drawing, a specification, and a contract document in a series of processes of a development process, a design process, a manufacture process, an inspection process, and a shipment process. The components are broadly classified into hardware components and firmware components. Accordingly, the enterprise separately manages the hardware components and the firmware components.
However, since the hardware components and the firmware components are primarily applied to the same product, the separate management of both the components is apt to produce a managing error, a reduced management efficiency and an increased time from development to shipment. Thus, the separate management of both the components is not advisable. Therefore, there has been required a device or a method for solving such problems.
FIG. 36 is an illustration showing the development and manufacture process of a product in a prior art. In FIG. 36, a design department conducts in sequence processing from step S1 to step S9. That is, at the step S1 is created a functional specification compiling specifications relating to the functions of the product and at step S2 is made an internal specification compiling specifications relating to the internal constitution of the product.
At the next step S3 is created a manufacture and assembly specification compiling specifications relating to the manufacture and assembly of the product and at step S4 is created a test and inspection specification compiling specifications relating to the test and inspection of the manufactured product. At step S5, there is created a version number management table for managing the number of versions of various kinds of specifications and design drawings.
In actuality, the above-mentioned functional specification, the internal specification, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “various kinds of specifications, . . . , the version number management table”) are created at step S6 by using a workstation or a personal computer. At step S7 is developed, for example, the source code of a firmware mounted on the product based on the various kinds of specifications and then at step S8 is created an object (code) by compiling the above-mentioned source code. At step S9, the above object (code) and the various kinds of specifications are recorded on recording medium 1 and then the recording medium 1 is supplied to a factory from the design department.
In this manner, in the factory, the above object (code) and the various kinds of specifications are introduced into a workstation or a personal computer from the recording medium at step S10 and then an object code is compiled at step S11. At the next step S12, the object code (firmware) is mounted on a target machine (product) according to the manufacture and assembly specification (see step S3). To be specific, the object code (firmware) is written into a programmable read only memory (PROM) packaged in the target machine.
At step S15, a test and an inspection are performed on the target machine according to the test and inspection specification (see step S4) and then the target machine passing the test and the inspection is shipped at step S14. Further, a field test is performed on the target machine at step S15 and then the target machine passing the field test is delivered to a user.
A firmware has been mainly described above. However, when the device/unit is manufactured, a design department conducts a design relating to a hardware constituting the device/unit as well as a design relating to a firmware. Specifically, the design department makes various kinds of design drawings relating to the hardware such as a parent component drawing, a child component drawing, a logic circuit drawing, a printed circuit board packaging drawing, and a hardware test specification, and the like.
The above-mentioned parent component drawing shows a table of components of the device/unit and the child component drawing shows the constitution of the components described on the child component drawing. The logic circuit drawing shows a logic circuit of the device and the printed circuit board packaging drawing shows a packaging state when parts are mounted on a printed circuit board. The hardware test specification compiles specifications relating to various kinds of tests of checking the actions of the assembled device.
Design drawings and the like relating to the hardware will be called hardware components. Similarly, the various kinds of specifications relating to the firmware described above will be called firmware components. These hardware components and firmware components are separately managed under different rules in the management department and are distributed to factories and the like when necessary. In the case where the hardware component or the firmware component is revised because of a change in design or the like, the management department manages the number of versions separately.
A client/server-type system has been conventionally used as a unit for managing the hardware components and the firmware components. This system is schematically constituted by a server placed in the management department and a plurality of clients placed in the factory and the like and accessible to the server via a network.
In the server are separately registered the hardware components and the firmware components. A client refers to the hardware components and the firmware components by using a browser. The client receives the hardware components and the firmware components via a network N. The operations relating to these reference and reception are performed by the operator of the client.
In the above-mentioned system, the place to which the hardware components and the firmware components are distributed (client) is limited by checking a password for the purpose of ensuring a security. In other words, in the conventional system, the place to which the hardware components and the firmware components are distributed is limited for each client by checking a pass word of the client.
To be specific, it is allowed to distribute specific hardware components and firmware components to a client invested with a specific password and it is prohibited to distribute specific hardware components and firmware components to a client invested with a password other than a specific password. In the conventional system, in the case where a defect is found in the firmware of the firmware component, a patch work, that is, a correction work is manually performed based on the specification written on a paper medium.
As described above, the hardware components and the firmware components are separately managed in the prior art. This is ascribable to the fact that, in general, a hardware development and a firmware development are separately performed in a product development.
However, the hardware components and the firmware components are used in an organic relation in the manufacture of a device. Accordingly, when the hardware components and the firmware components which are separately managed are organically related to each other, there is presented as a matter of course a problem that a working error is caused by forcibly relating the hardware components to the firmware components.
Following problem is generated in the management department. That is, because there are two kinds of management rules, a management rule for the hardware components and a management rule for the firmware components, a management work becomes troublesome and the amount of management work dramatically increases as the objects to be managed increase in number. Similarly, the management of the version number of the components requires a complicated work because the management of the version number of the hardware components and the management of the version number of the firmware components are separately performed.
The conventional system has a drawback that it is incapable of taking security measures to every detail. In other words, in the conventional system, a limitation is imposed on the place to which the hardware components and the firmware components are distributed for each client by checking the password of the client, it is impossible to impose a limitation on the place to which each component is distributed, for example, to impose a limitation on the place where only parent and child component drawings of the hardware components are distributed.
Further, when a correction is made to a firmware, the conventional system presents problems of causing a working error and a long working hour because a patch work is manually performed based on a specification written on a paper medium.
Still further, since the conventional system requires that a series of works of a management work, a reception work, a reference work and a patch work relating to the hardware components and the firmware components be manually performed by an operator, a manager, and a worker, it confines the hours for performing the series of works to working hours. This presents a problem that the working efficiency of the conventional system is very low.